


Learning your language

by atleast3letterslong



Series: Haikyuu!! Rarepair Week [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Deaf Character, Fluff, M/M, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-19 20:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3623019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atleast3letterslong/pseuds/atleast3letterslong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Hq!! rarepair week day 2- Language</p><p>When Tsukishima Kei hid himself away in a back stairwell during the intermission of a Miyagi prefecture volleyball tournament, he had been looking for some peace and quiet. Instead he got Tanaka Ryuunosuke. </p><p>AU in which Tanaka is Deaf, Tsukki learns JSL, and everything works out alright in the end</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning your language

When Tsukishima Kei hid himself away in a back stairwell during the intermission of a Miyagi prefecture volleyball tournament, he had been looking for some peace and quiet. Instead he got Tanaka Ryuunosuke. 

The spot had been seemingly perfect. It was far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the gymnasium that the sounds of shoes squeaking and hands hitting had faded away. While the concrete walls and cold tiled floor were less than ideal, there was a nice big window that filled the landing with warm sunlight and made the space slightly more inviting.

He settled down with his lunch and his mp3 player and allowed himself to relax. He had made it halfway through the bento his mother had prepared for him when he was disturbed by what sounded like a herd of elephants storming down the stairs. 

Shockingly, the terrible racket gave way to a lone boy. Around his age with a shaved head and an athletic jersey, the boy had his arms full of sports drinks and juice boxes and was moving down the stairs far faster than he should've been. 

The boy seemed to realize this and tried to stop himself before he crashed into Tsukishima but, unfortunately, this action caused him to trip over his untied shoes and dump the load of drinks he was carrying into Tsukishima's lap. This in turn caused the bento Tsukishima had been holding to flip over and spread its contents across his lap.

Tsukishima sat there in shock, covered in his own bento, the music from his mp3 player still pounding against his eardrums, as the boy scrambled to his feet, gathered the various beverages into his arms again, and ran off. 

"What just happened." he thought to himself. He was still processing the sudden turn of events that had disturbed his peaceful break when the boy returned. 

This time instead of drinks, his arms were loaded with paper towels. He made a strange gesture at Tsukishima and went to work cleaning off his pants. That was enough for Tsukishima's brain to begin working again. He pushed the boy off of him and slipped his headphones down around his neck.

"What are you doing?" He said in the 'cold and scary' voice normally reserved for his teammates when they were being particularly annoying. 

The boy didn't seem scared at all by this, and instead put on what appeared to be his impression of a yakuza boss's angry face. He gestured again.

"If you keep running around the halls like that you are going to end up running into trouble." Tsukishima said, standing up and glaring down at him over the top of his glasses. 

The boy seemed frustrated by this and patted desperately at the pockets of his pants and jacket. After several seconds of frantic searching for whatever-it-is he needed, he pointed a finger at Tsukishima.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you it is rude to point dumbass." Tsukishima said, confused and pissed off at the turn his break had taken.

The boy said nothing and instead made the 'call me' gesture at Tsukishima, who looked back with less anger and more confusion.

"Phone? You want my phone." Tsukishima asked, after a moment of thinking.

The boy pointed to his ear and shook his head. 

"No? You don't want my phone."

The boy then pointed to his ear very dramatically, paused, and then shook his head and brought his arms up in an "x" gesture. 

It dawned on Tsukishima all of the sudden. "You can't hear." he said. And then, feeling stupid for voicing his realization, he dug around in his pocket and pulled out his phone. 

The boy looked overjoyed at getting his point across to Tsukishima and immediately grabbed at the phone and began furiously typing at it. After a moment he thrust it back into its owner's hands.

He had opened up the messaging app and typed up a message. "Sorry!" It read. "Well, sorry for dropping those drinks into your lap and ruining your lunch and probably your pants. Anyways I already ate my own lunch but I brought a couple yen with me if you want something from the vending machine upstairs. Also I was trying to help you clean off your pants. Sorry if that weirded you out. Also sorry if this message is weird. I hate communicating like this." 

Tsukishima read over this quickly, feeling slightly guilty for a reason he didn't quite understand. When he finished he erased the written message and wrote his own. "Apology accepted. You should watch where you are going. I would like a pocari sweat. My name is Tsukishima Kei." He handed the phone back to the boy who flashed him what could only be described as a shit-eating grin and, once again, ran off. 

Tsukishima wondered how he managed to spend all day playing volleyball and still have the energy to run around like this. More assured of his companion's intentions, he set to work cleaning himself and the floor up with the pile of paper towels left behind. 

For a brief moment he left his former-sanctuary to dump the soiled paper towels into a nearby wastebasket. Re-entering the stairwell, he found shaved-head-boy looking forlorn and holding a pocari sweat. He coughed once and then, realizing the futility of that particular action, lightly tapped the strange boy on the shoulder. 

The boy whipped around and his kicked puppy dog look melted into a toothy grin that caused an annoying twinge in Tsukishima's chest. Pushing away the feeling he grabbed the sports drink and sat back down, pushing his headphones back up on his head.

Not seeming swayed by this in the slightest, the boy sat down as well. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out Tsukishima's phone. He typed a quick message and handed it back. Curious, Tsukishima looked down at the phone.

"My name is Tanaka Ryuunosuke. I'm a second year wing spiker at Niwatori High School. Look up." He looked up and watched as the boy, who he now knew was named Tanaka, pointed at corner of his mouth with his thumb. He then made the same "phone" gesture from before and pointed down. Taking that to mean he was supposed to look at his phone, Tsukishima went back to reading the rest of the message.

"That is how you sign my name. What year are you? What school? What position?" 

For the next twenty minutes or so they exchanged messages like this, with occasional interludes where Tanaka would teach Tsukishima a new sign. Tsukishima learned that Tanaka had an older sister who was around the same age as his brother and was also Deaf. He liked melonpan, video games, and when his sister turned the volume and bass all the way up in her car so they could feel the music in their bodies. They were in the middle of discussing their favorite bands when the door to the stairwell opened to reveal Yamaguchi and several of the other, louder, members of their team. All at once they were talking.

"Tsukki!"  
"There you are!"  
"This place is cool!"  
"Oi! You'll never guess what this dumbass did."  
"Our match starts in like 20 minutes!"  
"Shut up idiot!"  
"Stop fighting."  
"Let's go."

Before Tsukishima knew it he had been swept up in the chaotic atmosphere of his team and was in the gym warming up, the sunny hallway and Tanaka Ryuunosuke far away. 

 

All through their next match Tsukishima was distracted and angry for reasons he didn't entirely understand or, perhaps, didn't wish to think about. Obviously being distracted and angry didn't make for very effective volleyball playing and by the end of the first set (which they had won, but only barely) he knew he couldn't continue like this.

Ignoring the idiot duo's taunting and Yamaguchi's concern he snatched up his phone and did some quick searching on the internet. By the time he found what he was looking for it was time for the next set. Newly concocted plan fresh in his mind, he played far better this set, even managing to earn some praise from the captain after scoring the match-winning point.

The praise was lost on Tsukishima who left their gym with determination the second the formalities were over with. Not one for wandering aimlessly he immediately singled out a short, nervous looking boy standing nearby the doors of the adjacent gymnasium. He stepped close so he could use the full advantage of his height.

"You wouldn't happen to know where a team called Niwatori is practicing would you?" He spoke politely but firmly. 

"Ahh, er-, that is-" the boy stuttered. Suddenly, someone stormed through the open gymnasium doors and jumped between Tsukishima and the short boy. Tsukishima looked at the intruder and, thanks to the funny, ironic sort of way in which the world works, saw it was Tanaka Ryuunosuke.

Tanaka communicated nothing in words, but his expression said everything that needed to be said. "What business do you have with our first year?" It seemed to say. 

Of course Tsukishima had only a brief moment to analyze his expression since, once Tanaka realized who he was glaring at, it disappeared and was replaced by a look of mild surprise and curiosity. Relaxing his posture, he leaned against the wall and gestured for his underclassman to move along.

Tanaka reached into his pocket for his phone and began typing something up but Tsukishima stopped him by placing a hand on top of the screen. Tanaka looked up and tilted his head in confusion.

Taking a deep breath, Tsukishima took a moment to recall what he had looked up on his phone, and began moving. He first made the "phone" gesture that had become a familiar sign during their initial encounter. Afterwards he opened his hands, touched his thumbs to his pinkies and touched his hands together, palms facing towards his chest. Finally he brought a flat hand up to his face so that it cut it in half and moved it forward. With that he signed his first full sentence- "Phone number please". 

Following this display, Tanaka laughed, typed at his phone, and then handed it over to Tsukishima.

"You are a pretty interesting guy after all aren't you. My phone number isn't too useful to me but we can email if you want. Type a message to yourself on my phone and send it so you'll have my contact info."

Tsukishima did as instructed and returned the phone to its owner. Tanaka smiled, signed something Tsukishima didn't understand, gave a short wave, and turned into the gymnasium with the rest of his team.

 

It wasn't until that night when the Karasuno team was on the bus ride home that Tsukishima began feeling like the biggest moron in the world. He wasn't one particularly prone to impulsive actions, but for whatever reason something about Tanaka Ryuunosuke had captured his interest. Despite his slumped posture on the ugly-patterned bus seat he felt strangely out of breath- as though he had started sprinting without warming up first. He felt like the air before a storm, heavy and charged, like he was about to burst.

He was interrupted from his musings by the soft buzzing of his phone. Swallowing the rising excitement in his chest he looked down at his phone's screen. "1 message from Tanaka Ryuunosuke" it said in bright, flashing letters. 

Unfortunately for him, the bus arrived at the school right as he was about to open the message. Telling himself that it was just a message from some kid who was pretty much a stranger to him, that it could wait, he put his phone into his pocket. 

He shook awake Yamaguchi, who was sleeping in the seat next to his, gathered his things, made his way home, greeted his parents, ate dinner, took a bath, and finally made it up to his bedroom for the night before he let himself pull his phone out again to look at the message.

Laying on his back on his bed and trying not to feel too eager, he finally clicked the message notification and read what Tanaka had wrote.

"Why did you want my number?" the message read. "Is this some sort of game-strategy information gathering attempt? Or maybe it was my natural senpai-magic that won you over. Or could it be.......... love? lololololololol"

Feeling weirdly irritated Tsukishima immediately began composing a message back. "As if I would fall in love with some monk-headed idiot who ruined my lunch and my pants." Without thinking about how late it was, Tsukishima hit the send button.

He was regretting this, his second hasty action of the day, when his phone buzzed to life again. A return message from Tanaka.

"So you wanted my number to guilt me into paying for a new pair of pants or something? Lame."

Tsukishima felt a hot rush of something unidentifiable and wrote back, "No, actually I wanting to learn sign language and I was wondering if you would help." It was a strange half-truth. Truth be told Tsukishima was actually quite fascinated by the language of gestures, but, while he didn't know the exact reason for wanting to keep in contact with Tanaka, he was positive it wasn't because of the sudden desire to become bilingual. Luckily for him, Tanaka had no way of knowing any of this, and so took the message at face value.

"Really? That's awesome!" The return message began. "Not enough people know it, you know. It's a real pain since it's the main way I prefer to communicate. I'd love to help you learn. Messaging like this is definitely not the right way to do this though. I'm gonna put some helpful links at the bottom of this message. The first is the video messaging program I use. You can download it on your phone and your computer and when we both log on we can see each other. It'll be really useful. I'm also gonna pass along some sites on learning Japanese Sign Language (that is the language I know), and also some links to some useful online video archives. I'm so pumped for this!" Sure enough at the end of the message was a fairly sizable list of links.

Feeling like he had just got himself into a truly troublesome situation, and yet not feeling regretful at all, Tsukishima messaged back. "Okay. Sounds great. I'm going to sleep. Goodnight." 

Despite what his message said, and despite the physical and mental exertion of the day, sleep didn't seem to find him until over an hour after he sent his goodnight text message. He tried to keep still and drift off, but he couldn't stop his mind from tossing and turning, no matter how hard he tried.

 

The lessons began a week later. Although a bit awkward at the start, they eventually became Tsukishima's favorite part of the week and then, as the two grew closer and their video chats started happening more and more often, his favorite part of the day.

For the next few months Tsukishima studied like he was possessed. It seemed like every moment not occupied by school or volleyball was consumed by sign language. He first learned how to sign the hiragana alphabet, from there he started learning sign language vocabulary and from there he tackled the complex issues of grammar. A naturally gifted student, he picked it up fairly quickly- and it showed. Each time he and Tanaka video chatted he felt he was able to communicate easier, understand faster, and connect in a way he never knew he was capable of.

Everything wasn't perfect, however. Whenever they talked there was always a formless something lurking. It sat in the comfortable gaps between conversations. It floated back and forth during their friendly squabbles. It buzzed in the air when they made eye contact. 

Its presence drove Tsukishima absolutely crazy. Every time he thought he had it, thought he could give it a shape or a name, it vanished, remaining just barely out of his grasp.

One afternoon, walking back from practice with Yamaguchi he accidentally brought it up. He almost immediately regretted it, somehow sensing that whatever it was was something he should probably keep to himself. Turning to Yamaguchi to tell him to forget about it, he saw that his friend was staring back at him with wide eyes and a mischievous smile. 

"Isn't that love, Tsukki?" he asked playfully.

Tsukishima stopped walking abruptly, as though he had just walked into a brick wall. He wanted to tell Yamaguchi to fuck off, to tell him that that was ridiculous and pathetic and that there was no way that such a thing could ever occur in this universe or any other. He wanted to, but something about that word made all the pieces fall into place. The mysterious something that he couldn't figure out suddenly became crystal clear. 

He was in love with Tanaka Ryuunosuke. 

 

He doesn't remember getting home. He vaguely remembers Yamaguchi sensing his shock and changing the subject, but the rest of the journey is a blank. He laid down on his bed for a bit, suddenly remembering being in a similar position the day he met Tanaka. Then, he began to think.

Tsukishima was a lot of things, but a person who could be comfortable in ignorance was not one of them. He had to know his true feelings and he had to know them as soon as possible. Formulating a plan, he went to his computer and opened up the video chat program. 

Luckily for him Tanaka was already on. It only took a moment of waiting after clicking the only name on his friends list before he could see Tanaka's face.

"What's up?" Tanaka signed. "How was your day?"

"Good." Tsukishima signed back, ignoring how strangely warm he felt. "How was yours?"

Tanaka immediately launched into a story about how some kid on his volleyball team got a ball to the face. He was using his hands to vividly describe the way the blood spattered across the floor in the gym when Tsukishima held up a hand to stop him.

"What? Too gross for you princess?" Tanaka signed with a smirk.

"No." Tsukishima signed, and then hesitated. "I just had something else I wanted to discuss." 

"Really? What?" Tanaka's face glowed with interest. 

"I was thinking," Tsukishima began. "Messaging like this is probably not the best way. I think I need more real life-" he couldn't remember the sign for experience, and so resigned himself to the less efficient method of spelling it out.

Tanaka watched with a grin, showed him the proper sign for experience, and then began signing back. "Okay, what did you have in mind?"

"The zoo, maybe? If we go there I can get more experience-" he emphasized the sign "-with animal signs." Again, this was a half-truth. It would be useful to go to the zoo to learn animal signs yes, but for him it was more of a practice date- a dry run to see if maybe love was the right word to describe how he felt.

Tanaka agreed without question, although his eyes held a curious glimmer that Tsukishima could not quite identify. They planned out the details. There was a zoo that was a short train trip from both of their places. They would meet there the following Saturday and spend the day hanging out and getting some in-person lessons in. 

The rest of their conversation followed the normal pattern of chatting about daily minutia with brief lessons in sign language dispersed throughout. Eventually it got late enough that they had to sign off for the night and get some sleep. They had been conversing later and later lately and Tsukishima realized that this was probably because they couldn't bring themselves to part for the night. Feeling strangely giddy he fell right to sleep and had pleasant dreams.

 

Tsukishima spent the rest of the week in a tense sort of excitement. The hours seemed to pass impossibly slow, as they tend to do when one is looking forward to something. 

Finally, the awaited Saturday arrived. Tsukishima woke up two hours earlier than was entirely necessary. Filled with nervous energy he tried his best to make the time pass faster. He took a shower, cleaned his already immaculate room, made a lunch for himself, made a lunch for Tanaka, decided that was too girly, ate the lunch he made for Tanaka, and still arrived at the Train station 45 minutes before his train was scheduled to arrive. He bought a drink from a vending machine and chugged it down, attempting to drown the butterflies in his stomach.

The way their houses were positioned the train passed by the station near Tanaka's house first, then passed by the station near Tsukishima's house, then finally made its way to the station by the zoo. So when the train finally pulled in, Tsukishima boarded and set to work searching for Tanaka. 

He found him sitting in a car near the back. He was suddenly struck by the realization that this was his first time seeing Tanaka in person since their meeting at the volleyball tournament. He was looking down at his phone and so didn't notice Tsukishima's approach. Tsukishima approached him and gently flicked the top of his ear to get his attention.

He gave Tsukishima a jokingly angry look and signed to him, "Your first time seeing me in months and that's how you greet me?"

"I see you every night stupid." He signed back.

"Yeah but over the computer is not the same as in person." 

"True." Tsukishima agreed.

They passed the rest of the train ride trading quips and making plans for the day. By the time they had arrive Tsukishima's nervousness had melted away, leaving a strangely soothing warmth in its wake.

 

As they made their way around the zoo Tsukishima found himself having more fun than he thought possible. In the sloth enclosure they took turns mocking the slow animals so mercilessly that they were asked to leave the area by a nearby zookeeper. 

While visiting the monkeys, Tanaka ended up getting into a fight with one. It started with the monkey throwing its own excrement in a way that only barely avoided smacking Tanaka right in the face and quickly escalated into what could loosely be described as an "argument" consisting of high pitched shrieking noises on one side and vigorous sign language trash talking on the other. Once again they were informed that if they did not conduct themselves in a proper manner they would be escorted from the premises. 

When they stopped for lunch they ran into a lost child and, despite their best efforts to help, ended up making her cry even harder. This of course ended up with yet another encounter with zoo security.

In the aviary they competed to see who could teach one of the resident parrots the dirtiest word. Tsukishima won, but only barely. They got several rather dirty looks, but had no altercations with zoo staff, which they took as a sign that they were getting better at getting away with their shenanigans. 

By the time they reached their final destination, the petting zoo, they were thoroughly giddy off their own misconduct and were already relating the tales of their misadventures back to each other, punctuating their stories with laughter so intense it rendered them silent.

They quieted down as the approached the wooden hut that housed the rabbits. Tanaka picked up one of the tinier, fluffier ones with his left hand and with his right hand signed a sign Tsukishima didn't know, but felt he had seen before.

"What does that sign mean?" He asked. 

Tanaka put the small creature down and spelled out the meaning, "Cute."

All of the sudden it hit Tsukishima where he had seen the sign before. It was way back during their first encounter. Right after he had gotten Tanaka's number, Tanaka had signed something before disappearing into the gym. Looking back on his memory with his newly acquired knowledge of sign language he realized what it was- "You are cute."

He met Tanaka's eyes and smirked. "You think I'm cute?" He signed.

"What? No." Tanaka blushed. "I was talking about the rabbit."

"You weren't talking about the rabbit back at that tournament when I asked for your number." Tsukishima grinned ear to ear. He felt like they were playing chess and he had just gotten a checkmate.

Tanaka's eyes widened as the memory of that day flashed before his eyes. Finally he signed back, "You must be remembering wrong."

"I am not." Tsukishima signed back and then, with a courage he didn't know he possessed, he placed his hands on Tanaka's shoulders, closed his eyes, and leaned in. It was there, in front of the rabbit enclosure in the petting zoo, that their lips met and they kissed for the first time.

Tsukishima pulled away slightly hesitantly and signed to Tanaka, "I think you are cute too."

 

"That was too cool!" Tanaka signed excitedly on the train ride back. "The senpai has been shown up by his kohai!" Then, taking on Tsukishima's manner of signing, Tanaka signed "I think you are cute too." He returned to his normal signing style. "You are such a cool guy. I'm so glad I dropped those drinks on you." 

Tsukishima watched in quiet contentment as Tanaka went on about how cool he was and about how he had thought he was cute from their first meeting and how he was afraid of scaring him off and how happy he was that the feelings were mutual. Eventually the conversation wound down and the two of them spent the rest of the ride back leaning against each other and holding hands. 

Tsukishima Kei had hid himself away in that back stairwell during the intermission of a Miyagi prefecture volleyball tournament looking for some peace and quiet. Instead he found Tanaka Ryuunosuke. And he didn't regret a thing, not even for a moment.

**Author's Note:**

> General notes:
> 
> I don't actually have any functional knowledge of Japanese Sign Language. I am, however, near fluent in American Sign Language. So this fic draws primarily from my experiences with ASL and the American Deaf community and culture. All the signs I describe are from Japanese sign language (at least, according to the online dictionary I used) so unless you are in Japan I wouldn't try using them. 
> 
> Pocari sweat is a Japanese sports drink meant to replenish electrolytes, sort of like gatorade.
> 
> I called Tanaka's school "Niwatori" because it means chicken and I wanted to keep with the bird theme. Also because the kanji for chicken can also be read as "Kei", which I thought was funny. 
> 
> I'm not 100% sure how name signs work in Japanese Sign Language but I did read somewhere that name signs for males tend to use the thumb. Otherwise I used the ASL name sign convention of using a notable characteristic- in Tanaka's case I decided that his sister probably saw his first smile as a baby and fell so in love with it that she gave him a sign reflecting that.
> 
> Melonpan is a type of sweet bun covered in a thin layer of cookie dough. It's also Tanaka's favorite food according to the character profiles.


End file.
